Cadavre Exquis by André Breton, JacquesHérold, Yves Tanguy, Victor Brauner" 1925-1930
EXQUISITE CORPSE. —A game in which several people compose a phrase or drawing together, folding the paper so that no one can see the previous collaboration or collaborations. The now-classic example,which gave the game its name, was the first
phrase created in this method: the exquisite-corpse-drank-the new-wine. (Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme)
“The malicious critics of the years 1925 to 1930 simultaneously complained that we were caught up in puerile games and suspected us of having individually (and laboriously) produced the game's “monsters” in full sight—yet further proof of the critics’
carelessness. What excited us about these games is that no single mind could have made what they created, and that they had a great deal of the power of drift, which poetry too often lacks. With the Exquisite Corpse we found a way—finally—to escape our self-criticism and fully release the mind’s metaphorical activity."